Nature Study Kit from Recyclables

This afternoon the girls and I went around the house collecting recyclables and put together a Nature Study Kit to enjoy some educational outdoor fun!

There were lots of interesting containers to collect specimens — a baby food jar, a tea tin, a mint tin, and a leftover mesh bag from a sack of lemons. All I did was add a magnifying glass, a pencil, and we reused Emily’s old garden goody bag to store it all in. I put together the journal by reusing some of Emily’s old spin art for the cover and stapling in a few pieces of scrap paper to make up the book. In mind was this kit from Imagine Childhood.

Basically, almost any sort of interesting container can be reused to make your own Nature Study Kit!

Next, it was time to collect interesting nature treasures! Both of the girls had so much fun with this!!

Clara took her collecting job very seriously.

Emily enjoyed sorting the different types of leaves, bark, stones, and seed pods we collected — right from our own backyard!

She especially liked this tiny bit of moss!

So many interesting rocks!

Clara loved collecting twigs and clover to bring to the table.

Next, we made drawings in our notebooks to record all the details….

Emily asked me if she could take her nature study kit with her to the garden this evening, and I think that’s a terrific idea!!

Another terrific idea, we have a backpack filled with stuff to take on big trips, but this would be just the thing for the little ones around our property.
I am still looking for some sort of metal tins to use for the little travel kit. All I can find are mints and lollies in cardboard or plastic or a tiny little mint container that is too small.
I will have to keep looking, Australia is not called the lucky country for nothing!

This is a nice way to recycle and discover nature. My only problem is that daughter loves to bring all those collections in house and then they magically end up as “soup” in her play kitchen and therefore spread all over the place.

Oh my goodness, I know exactly what you mean! Emily doesn’t have any desire to bring nature things in the house, but one of her friends does and they end up making “stew” all the time. I found all sorts of sticks and rocks in the play kitchen the other day… hope she didn’t bring in any critters!